Italian Hot Chocolate

5 from 22 votes

Created by: Stefanie

Course Drinks

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 10

Total Time 15

This Italian hot chocolate is warm, rich, creamy, and so good that it's almost a sin! Only simple ingredients required and ready in 15 minutes!

Reserve ½ cup of the milk. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan, combine remaining 3 ½ cups of milk, salt, cocoa powder, and sugar. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly.
Add the dark chocolate and stir until melted.
To the reserved ½ cup milk, add the cornstarch and stir until the cornstarch is fully dissolved.
With the chocolate mixture still simmering, pour in the cornstarch slurry while whisking/stirring constantly. Continue cooking and stirring until the mixture thickens (1-2 minutes).
Remove from heat, add vanilla extract, and serve immediately.

We'll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later!

This drink is perfect like it is, but if you decide to top it with chocolate shavings, mini marshmallows, whipped cream, or a dusting of cocoa powder we wouldn't be mad!

Keep the chocolate mixture on low heat when simmering. We don't want the milk to scald.

Taste the hot chocolate once it has thickened then adjust the sweetness as needed.

Consider serving smaller portions in an espresso cup for a true Italian drinking chocolate experience.

Cornstarch is a thickening agent. We make a slurry by dissolving cornstarch in a cold liquid (milk, in this case). Cornstarch begins to thicken when heat is added, so if you dump the cornstarch straight into the hot chocolate, it will form lumps. The cornstarch slurry prevents the lumps and allows the cornstarch to mix in smoothly and then thicken.

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